An electric bus has caught fire in London just days after two sparked panic in the capital after they also went up in flames.
Video posted on social media show flames engulfing a vehicle inside a bus garage on Chelverton Road in Putney yesterday. Firefighters from the London Fire Brigade were called to the scene at 8:21am and attended the site with two fire engines.
The fire tore through part of the single-deck bus, which was unoccupied, before it was ‘promptly’ extinguished by 9:13am. Around 20 people inside the building were safely evacuated and there were no reports of any injuries.
The bus, which was used on route 265, had been operated by bus company Go Ahead London, who has now launched a ‘precautionary fleet check’ of around 380 of its electric buses.
This is the third electric bus to catch fire in the capital in the last 14 days, heaping more pressure on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to address the problem, which has already put some passengers’ lives in danger.
An electric bus caught fire in London yesterday just days after two sparked panic in the capital after they also went up in flames
Videos on social media show flames engulfing a vehicle inside a bus garage in Putney yesterday
Go Ahead London said in a message to its staff that it is ‘in the initial stages of an investigation’ and that a ‘precautionary fleet check’ of around 380 electric buses is now underway.
It added that the ‘events of this kind that took place inside our premises’ on Wednesday ‘are very rare’.
London Fire Brigade said: ‘Firefighters tackled a fire involving an electric bus at a bus garage on Chelverton Road in Putney yesterday.
‘Part of the bus was damaged by fire. Around 20 people left the building before firefighters arrived and there were no reports of any injuries.
‘The Brigade’s 999 Control Officers received nine calls about the fire. The Brigade was called at 0821 and the fire was extinguished by 0913.
‘Two fire engines from Fulham and Tooting Fire Stations attended the scene. The cause of the fire is under investigation.’
A TfL spokesperson said: ‘Putney bus garage was partially closed following a fire on a bus. No one was on board the bus at the time and it was extinguished quickly. An investigation into the incident is now taking place.’
The 265 bus route runs between Tolworth and Putney Bridge, via Tolworth King Charles Road, Kingston Vale and Barnes Station.
It comes after another two electric double-decker buses burst into flames in the capital earlier this month.
Another London bus caught fire just before 7am on January 12 in North Woolwich
The burnt out shell of the London bus in North Woolwich is pictured following the huge blaze
The bus was completely destroyed by the blaze on the morning of January 12
One day before on January 11, an electric double decker burst into flames in Wimbledon
The smoldering bus with a charred back window in Wimbledon following the blaze
One hybrid vehicle caught fire in North Woolwich, East London, just before 7am on January 12 with onlookers shouting ‘what the f***’ as they were urged to ‘move back’.
A video showed the bus ablaze before dawn at the junction of Factory Road and Store Road, while photographs taken later in daylight showed its burnt-out shell.
The bus involved was an Alexander Dennis Enviro400 hybrid that runs on diesel and electricity, with about 900 in use across 78 routes in London.
And just one day commuters were swiftly evacuated after a huge blast ripped the back off an Optare Metrodecker bus on route 200 in Wimbledon at 7.20am on its way to Raynes Park.
These two buses were also operated by Go Ahead London, but were different models to the one that caught fire yesterday.
All Metrodeckers were temporarily taken out of service for safety checks in May 2022 when two were involved in a major fire at Potters Bar bus garage in Hertfordshire – before being returned to service only days later.
Speaking in relation to the Wimbledon incident, City Hall Conservatives transport spokesman Keith Prince told : ‘We’re calling on Sadiq Khan to withdraw these buses until the cause of the Wimbledon bus fire is understood.
‘We’re also calling for urgent checks on the remaining electric buses in the fleet to ensure they are safe. Londoners need to have confidence that their bus is safe and won’t burst into flames.
‘Sadiq Khan must not compromise the safety of Londoners. We need action not words. Failure to act will tell Londoners that Sadiq Khan doesn’t care about safety.’
Commuters were swiftly evacuated after a huge blast ripped off the back of an Optare Metrodecker 1050 bus travelling from Mitcham to Raynes Park in South West London at 7.20am on Friday, January 12
MAY 2022: Two Optare Metrodecker London electric buses were involved in a major fire at Potters Bar bus garage in Hertfordshire on May 22, 2022 – which destroyed six buses
There are more than 80 Metrodecker buses on the London network – operating on these routes
Speculating about the possible cause of the Wimbledon blaze was Neil Pederson, an experienced former firefighter who is now chief executive of Fire Containers.
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘It’s most likely that today’s [January 12] electric vehicle bus fire in London was caused by an electrical fault and may not be linked to the lithium batteries if the fire started at the back of the bus.
‘This is because lithium batteries on electric buses are on the top of the front of the bus rather than the back. But as the sale of electric vehicles continues to increase, fires like these are only going to become more common.
‘On average it takes firefighters four hours to extinguish EV fires and this is because of their lithium batteries and on average costs £1million an hour each time traffic is held up because of a burning vehicle.’
Mr Khan has faced calls to launch a ‘full and urgent investigation’ into the Wimbledon double decker explosion as he ploughs ahead with his stated ambition to make the capital’s entire bus fleet ‘zero-emission’ by 2034.
But yesterday’s incident was just the latest example of safety faults with electric vehicles – which were the fastest growing cause of fires in the capital last year, according to the London Fire Brigade.
In 2023 there were 150 e-bike fires in London, along with 28 e-scooter fires, which was 53 per cent more than in 2022.
Mr Pederson said: ‘People automatically think when they see a fire they think ‘oh no there unsafe’, I’m never going to get on an electric bus. I think it is fair to say electric buses are generally safe. It’s a safe mode of transport, like getting on a normal bus.
‘There are over a thousand EV-buses currently on the routes of London. Bar the Potters Bar event we have had two incidents within a week. But that represents 0.2% of the fleet.
‘EV buses are not dangerous. The problem is when they do catch fire, they attract a lot of attention in the media.
‘These buses have been in London since 2019 and we haven’t had that many incidents. Because they are electric buses and they are new technology, they are getting a lot of attention.’
‘The key thing is educating people on the dangers of lithium cells and what to do if a lithium cell becomes involved in a fire. A standard fire extinguisher is not going to work on a lithium fire.
‘What you are actually doing is putting people in harm’s way. If they are not trained, they will walk into a toxic, flammable gas cloud, which could make them unconscious.’